The Mancunian Way: The midnight hostages

In today’s edition of the newsletter we’ll be concentrating on a startling story of a robbery that unfolded like a movie plot. It was a case that saw a bank manager’s family kidnapped, a midnight hostage ordeal and a carefully planned escape.But as our chief reporter Neal Keeling explains, 22 years on, the Whitefield heist remains unsolved.Hundreds of tram passengers ride by it every day. It sits at the top of the hill as you look up from the Bury-bound platform at Whitefield Metrolink. It is now 8 Whitefield, a Chinese restaurant on Bury New Road.But 22 years ago it was the scene of one of the region's most infamous heists. Built from limestone with a domed corner in the 1930s in the All Saints Conservation Area the landmark was once a bank. In 2004 it was run by the NatWest.‌It was the t